"sacred and sacramental"
While the sacred and sacramental evidently infuse the work of one who has been described by Derek Walcott as a Christian poet, it is not done slavishly or in a doctrinaire manner. Indeed many of the epigraphs he chooses are biblical or quote authors like Auden and Eliot. But he also has much time for Dionne Brand and Canisia Lubrin who are certainly not of this Faith orientation. He also seems to me to run the risk, in the treatment of his themes, of drawing the ire of those who are plain, ultra-conservative, Bible-thumping believers. He allows himself the freedom and artistic creativity to interpret the message in the context of a certain unity of the physical and metaphysical: the kaiso griot becomes a metaphor for an earthly and earthy messenger ‘with your rough, beautiful, holy voice’ (p.18).
In all this Robert (JRL) is mindful that ‘faith must tread carefully / sandalled with the truth you wear’ (p.56).